Attacking Law Firms Attacks What Makes America Great | Opinion

Newsweek ^ | Apr 10, 2025 | Bryan Sullivan

[where's_the_Outrage?]

"The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom," said the great fictional lawyer Atticus Finch, hero of the beloved classic To Kill a Mockingbird.

Finch maintained that: "Our courts have their faults as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal."

Our courts are where people can freely exercise their rights by challenging what they believe is government overreach. What makes it work is our adversarial system in which lawyers zealously represent their clients—even if the case may be unpopular or controversial.

This was recognized by our Founding Fathers even before our country was founded when future President John Adams defended the eight British soldiers who perpetrated the Boston Massacre in 1770.

In our own times, could you imagine an America if Thurgood Marshall had not challenged the racist and offensive "separate but equal" doctrine handed down in Plessy v. Ferguson in Brown v. Board of Education?

But, now, the Trump administration, in an unprecedented move, has gone after law firms that have taken sides against it in the past. On a micro level, that action and similar future threats could cripple and ruin those firms and their partners—canceling security clearances, barring access to government offices and, even more chillingly, telling companies that do business with the government that they must disclose their dealings with the law firms.....

Attacking law firms for the political beliefs of its partners or for the cases they decide to take is wrong on every level, regardless of which side of the aisle you are on.

[butterdezillion]

How about lawyers suborning perjury in order to influence an election?

Do those lawyers and firms who support those lawyers deserve to know the nation’s security secrets? They’ve already shown that they are willing to sacrifice election integrity and national security in order to “get” a political opponent - and more than willing to lie all the way to the bank to hide what they’ve done. Are those really the people who should know information that could compromise everything that America is supposed to be?

I think it’s a case of “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Any country that would trust people who have already shown their treason is on a suicide mission.

[Rockingham]

The relationship between a law firm and client requires a high degree of trust and confidence. Where a law firm has previously declared and carried out ideological opposition to the client -- in this case Trump and his administration -- the required trust and confidence cannot exist.

As for comparisons to Thurgood Marshall, he fought many hard battles as a lawyer against often racist government actions for an underdog's pay. Yet he never presumed to demand that he had a right to be hired by those same governments.

[VanShuyten]

There’s no reason to presume law firms would be more moral than used car salesmen just because they went to college.

[rxh4n1]

“I seem to recall some law firms refused to represent Trump because of his politics. Now he’s returning the favor.”

I seem to recall efforts to have attorneys representing election challengers and TRump disbarred.

[FLT-bird]

Where the hell was this concern when President Trump’s lawyers were being attacked by Leftists....had bar complaints brought against them....were sanctioned and/or threatened with disbarment?

As we say here in the South, “you came to Jesus a little too late my friend.”

[13Sisters76]

Oh please. All this self-stroking is puke-inducing.

“Sometimes I think old Billy was right. Let’s kill all the lawyers, kill ‘em tonight!”- Don Henley